Westmead Hospital's ICU has been stripped of training accreditation in an unprecedented response to bullying and harassment allegations made against senior medical staff.

The College of Intensive Care Medicine (CICM) revoked the major hospital's ICU training accreditation, in an extraordinary indictment of the hospital’s inability to provide an appropriate teaching environment for CICM trainee doctors.

Westmead Hospital ICU has been stripped of its training accreditation. Credit:Nicolas Walker

Health Minister Brad Hazzard said he was made aware of the issue on Thursday and called the hospital's senior manager into his office on Friday seeking "in the strongest terms how this could have occurred."

"I value our medical specialists but they also have to understand that this is the 21st century and there is absolutely not one millimetre of room for a culture of bullying or failure to provide respect to every staff member in the area of service," he said.

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"I have given very clear direction that hospital management are to pull whatever resources they need to determine what the cultural issues are," Mr Hazzard said.

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Mr Hazzard has demanded a report back within a month, "but I was told it has taken years to develop this culture and it may take some time to reverse".

"The timeframe they gave me was not a timeframe I accepted and I told them I wanted them to go full steam ahead to get these issues sorted," he said.

In an email to its members, the Australian Salaried Medical Officer’s Federation NSW (ASMOF) said "the unprecedented severity of removing accreditation signals serious failings and the erosion of trust and confidence in management from the District to effectively and appropriately deal with such conduct."

ASMOF said the punitive measure would likely have an adverse impact on junior and senior doctors, exacerbating already “onerous” workloads in the ICU.

“Furthermore, the loss of training positions and increases in workloads may also become an issue for patient care,” ASMOF told its members.

WSLHD acting chief executive Graeme Loy said “the Western Sydney Local Health District has taken immediate and decisive action in regard to an accreditation report of the College of Intensive Care Medicine."

"WSLHD does not condone bullying of any kind," Mr Loy said in a statement.

WSLHD has appointed an independent investigator to review the issues identified. "The findings of this review will be acted upon with the aim of re-securing training accreditation as soon as possible," Mr Loy said.

"The intensive care unit will continue to provide services to the community as we work through these issues."

CICM members account for roughly one third of trainees in ICUs nationally. Westmead's ICU is staffed by a mix of CICM members and members of other Australian colleges and international recruits.

ASMOF said an endemic culture of bullying and harassment pervades the entire Western Sydney Local Health District (WSLHD).

“We support the District’s claim that there must be a swift and comprehensive shift in the culture within the Department to provide the framework for the accreditation to be returned as soon as reasonably possible,” ASMOF’s told its members.

“However, we cannot support the flawed assumption that the culture of bullying is concentrated solely within the senior medical staff in the ICU. Rather, it is a culture that affects the entire District,” the email read.

ASMOF has previously raised concerns about the alleged culture of bullying and harassment at Westmead Hospital.

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Several surveys and reports including Public Sector Employee Survey ‘People Matters 2018', the JMO specific, Your Training and Wellbeing Matters 2017 Survey and the Alliance NSW Hospital Health Check Survey 2017 found an “endemic culture of bullying and harassment within the [WSLHD]” ASMOF said.

ASMOF has demanded WSLHD also commit to an independent external investigation into the culture across the LHD, including at administrative and executive levels.

“This will provide a fair, comprehensive and transparent process which will allow all forms of bullying behaviours to be identified and then hopefully stamped out,” ASMOF said.

President of CICM Dr Ray Raper said discussions between the college and the hospital were confidential.

Dr Raper said the college had followed a rigorous and lengthy process to come to the conclusion to withdraw Westmead's accreditation, including a detailed inspection of the ICU.

The college accreditation review process includes bullying and harassment assessments.

A total of 12 per cent report they had experienced discrimination and 3 per cent reporting being sexually harassed.

AMA NSW President Dr Kean-Seng Lim said in a statement "AMA (NSW) is aware of the issues with the loss of accreditation for ICU at Westmead hospital. We are working with the doctors and the Local Health District to ensure the arrangements are put in place to address concerns".